This invention relates generally to a wind turbine rotor blade, and more particularly, to a flange for connecting the rotor blade to a hub of the wind turbine.
Apart from the aerodynamic design of a wind turbine rotor blade, the quality and weight of the rotor blades are essentially determined by the design of the blade connection to the rotor hub, i.e. the blade root section. What makes the design of the blade connection to the rotor hub a difficult task is the load transfer from the fiber composite structure of the rotor blade to the metal structure of the rotor hub. Such a load transfer is difficult in principle due to the substantially different properties of the materials involved. Furthermore, the rotor loads are concentrated at the blade root portion and the rotor hub and the loads exhibit a highly dynamic load spectrum. In conventional wind turbines, the root section of the rotor blades are made of glass fiber reinforced plastic.